Donald Trump

I guess Donald Trump is hungry for attention. He tweets that he is going to give away suitcases of cash. The crowds flock to his Trump Towers. Maybe the old man is crazy, but maybe there is a chance he will really start giving away cash. And he does.

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Trump selected a handful of people and whisked them away to a downstairs room, filled with press and cameras. Standing in front of a podium in front of the considerably smaller crowd, Trump played three different videos.

Each featured a different person in need of Trump's cash. The first told the story of a family, unable to pay their medical bills, supporting a family member with cancer; the second showed small business owner, a woman struggling to run her "educational business" in Albany; the third, an aspiring 20-something singer trying to cover production and touring costs.

Trump then brought the stars of the videos out on stage and gave each a suitcase full of money with different amounts: $40,000 went to the wife of the man with lung cancer, (he was unable to accept the cash in person because, according to FundAnything co-founder Bill Zanker, "He is in the ICU in Canada waiting for a lung"); $15,000 to the business owner; and $25,000 to the singer.

-- ONTD

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It's an ongoing program he calls FundAnything. There is something about it that makes me wince, but this is better than just hoarding his money for his private pleasure.

Three Journal

After finishing my reminiscences of "Pre-empting Jihad", I am ready to skip ahead to that summer of dandelion dreams. But I think I will go back to the beginning of Gabe's resurfacing in our e-lives - our social circle of Sugar, Memo and Gabe. That's in January of 2005, and I think I'll begin with the first of the month, the first of the year. I want to catch that time of my life. It was when the e-freindships that were beginning in 2003 had matured, a year and a half after "Pre-empting Jihad", and my e-life is at its best, and there is some Sugar stuff. I worry a little that this will crowd out the point of this jump, that is, the story of Gabe, but we will see how it goes.

Weather

One of those borderline days: will it rain or will it not? It kind of looks and feels like it, and a strong chance is forecasted. I went ahead and made a grab for Sammy in an abundance of caution, with the thought that there is a good chance that Ms. Walker will be coming over, making it hard for me to watch out for the cats with her in the kitchen all evening.

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2200

The sun came out in the late afternoon, and the forecast pushed off the specter of storms until tomorrow morning. So, I let the cats out.

But in the evening, with the winds whipping about and the clouds returning, it is starting to feel like rain again, and now the forecasts have brought the specter of storms back a few hours - three-ish or so. I'm not struggling to bring the cats inside. I'll leave only a little bit of food out tonight, and we will play it be ear. But if those storms do roll in at three, I'll be wreck for tomorrow morning's Grocery Day.

And, surprisingly, Ms. Walker did not make it in. We get a reprieve on that, for now.

Daily Fun

Common squirrel monkey / Saimiri sciureus (by stoplamek)

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